In our daily prayers God was every manner of image and metaphor and meaning, and always, "God the Father." We never ever prayed to "God our Mother." What were women in the economy of God? The answer was only too painful: We were invisible. I had given my life to a God who did not see me, did not include me, did not touch my nature with God's own....Joan Chittister, "Called to Question"

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Are You My Mother?

A reflection on Proper 5, Year BMark 3:20-35 by the Rev. Margaret Rose

A week ago I participated in the
funeral in Atlanta, of a long time mentor, Burgess Carr.Burgess, originally from Liberia, had been a professor
of mine in seminary and later was the preacher at my ordination some thirty
years ago. He was an Episcopal priest and pastor.But his real claim to fame was that he was
the General Secretary of the All Africa Conference of Churches inthe 70’s and helped to broker an early peace
agreement in Sudan. He also called on the African churches not to accept
Western money but challenged them to become independent and set their own
agendas.By the 80’s though, he was living
in the United States where his work included not only the university setting,
but parishes, and United Nations agencies where he continued to advocate for
peace and reconciliation in Africa and elsewhere.All that however, is background to the
funeral at the Cathedral in Atlanta where he lived at the time of his death at
age 76.When I arrived I went to the
parish hall where the family had been directed to gather. When I got there, I
thought I must be in the wrong place. This must be where the whole congregation
is meeting before the service.More than
a hundred peoplewere there.I said hello to Burgess’s wife and his five
children who I knew, but as I listened,
I heard the others speaking to each other, “Uncle, could you tell me where to
find some water.”“Oh Auntie, let me be with
you.” “Mama, brother, sister”.All were forms of address to the others in
the room.I knew they were not all
biologically related.But this was
family. There was no doubt.And they
knew it.Certainly, part of this was
culture—African and Liberian culture.Part was tribal.And Burgess did
have a large family--- children, sisters, brothers…

But this was also a profoundly baptismal gathering.The people gathered to say good bye to
Burgess Carr knew they were bound together in Christ, by the water of baptism,
a bond which no amount of dysfunction can break.The
funeral indeed was a family affair, full of the celebration of accomplishment
and the sadness of loss and included those who gathered in the parish hall and
called one another brother and sister and uncle and aunt as well as those who
came from farther afield-- hisparish
family and folks like me whose lives were changed because of his presence.

I tell this story because it is, I think, what Jesus is getting at in
the Gospel text for today, even though we have to dig a bit to get there.Let’s
go back to Mark’s Gospel:

Jesus is taking the country by storm, crowds are callinghim Messiah and the religious authorities
fear he is inciting an insurrection. Just in the first three chapters of Mark’s
Gospel Jesus has been baptized by John the Baptist, John, himself, already suspected of insanity with his coat of
camel’s hair and eating wild locusts. Jesus has healed a leper, taught in the
synagogues and fought with the Pharisees about what is proper on the
Sabbath.He’d healed a manwith a withered arm,chosen twelve disciples who leave families to
follow him, and taken on a regular practice of sitting down with tax collectors
and sinners and in what may have been the last straw, eating the bread of the
Sabbath.The crowds were like a mash
pit at a rock concert coming in closer to see who this man is, wondering what
in the world he is about and telling the news about the country side.

The religious authorities were concerned. To give them their due, it was a time of
religious confusion, one with epilepsy was often seen as possessed by a demon.
There was fear everywhere that Beelzebul—or the House of Ba al would take
over.Anyone drawing such a crowd was
distrusted. What was authentic they
wondered.What is real?

And in addition to the miraculous healing, Jesus was naming the
financial corruption about the leaders, and addressing this evil head on.

Back in Nazareth, his family, when they heard about all this, were
concerned that he had lost his mind. Mary of course knew that he was a little
different from other folks. She and Joseph had already had that experience in
the Temple when he was 12 and ran off to be teaching with the scribes and other
rabbis.But this seemed a little over
the edge.The Greek translation of this
text suggests that Jesus’ mother and brothers set out, either to see for themselves
what the heck is going on, or maybe even to do what we today would call an
“intervention”.I can imagine them thinking,“
He has gone of his rocker; we know he has special talents, but what he is doing
is not safe!We are going to have to get
him out of there.”They arrive at the
house where Jesus is and can’t even get in.So they send a messenger to say they are there, and Jesus pays no
attention to them.

As a parent, you might hope that your child would realize the worry of
a family and at least come to reassure you .But no.He stays put. “Who are my
mother and my brothers?”And looking
around, he indicates the crowd inside.“Here
are my mother and my brothers as are all who do the will of God.”

I have always been a little annoyed at Jesus when I read this text. I
feel bad---and not a little kinship with his mother and his brothers when they
are left on the outside of the crowd.Jesus was not a family man. Those
who call on Jesus to be the model of so called “family values” have not read
scripture closely!

His response, in fact called the whole of Jewish culture into
question.Family, bloodlines, history
were formative from generation to generation.The bond of family was unbreakable and often condemned one to shame and
guilt for generations past and allowed for wealth and power for the future.Jesus, steeped in and faithful to this
culture, relativizes this biological bond and the choke hold it could sometimes
have on relationships.Just as he exposed
the corruption oflaws which once
created community, he questioned taboos of eating, healing and the corruption
of Sabbath laws. Jesus invited the
people gathered to see and know family in new ways.It was not just the mother and brother he had
grown up with, but allwere to be
calledbrother and sister.Doing the will of God meant to be our sisters’ and brothers’ keepers,
beyond the bloodlines.

I still feel bad for Mary. She had suffered so much.But I suspect we would not be reading this
passage, if Mark had written that Jesus went out to reassure his mother, then
returned to preach the message of caring to the crowd.

I remember a children’s book I used to read to my daughters called,
“Are You my Mother?” where a confused baby bird asks cows, and cats, animals and
planes and even a steam shovel the big maternal question.The birdis finally reunited with the mother and his nest. For the young child,
the book reassures that one’s mother is always there to claim us, as it should
be.But for us, we are in a sense
Mothers and Fathers and Sisters and Brothers for each other.

Which reminds me of the funeral last week, but even more to life in
Christian community.It does not mean
that we ignore our biological families.They are a part of our responsibility too.But it is through baptism that we claim that
Waterbinds us in as deep a commitment
as blood. That is not always easy.Christian
community or “family” is often as dysfunction as those we grow up with.Yet Jesus calls us to have this broad view
and care for one another as if each were a sister, a brother, a father, a
mother.

1 comment:

THANKS for this, Margaret. I particularly appreciated this insight: "But I suspect we would not be reading this passage, if Mark had written that Jesus went out to reassure his mother, then returned to preach the message of caring to the crowd." There is such a pressure -- from "the strong man"? -- to domesticate and tame the gospel.